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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

We have vacation bible school this week. What this means is I've been having to set an alarm for the first time this summer and the kids and I have been getting up at the ungodly hour of 7:30. This week, I've learned that one can actually shower, make coffee, drive a car, and sing This Little Light of Mine without technically being awake.

I'm staying at the church during bible school because I'm crazy I like hanging out and helping. It's a fun week. And, wonderfully awesome mom that I am, I'm sharing the fun with Austin and Savannah. I put Austin to work in the kitchen with me and Savannah is helping another mom with a group of kids.

Because I'm staying and helping out in the kitchen, Brooklyn hangs out in the nursery during VBS. The sweet woman who watches her, Mrs. Abbott, has, along with her husband, watched all my kids from Savannah down to Brooklyn during worship service over the years. Yesterday Brooklyn was "making hot chocolate" in the play kitchen for Mrs. Abbott. Mrs. Abbott told her, "I'd like a marshmallow in mine, please." Brooklyn put a pretend marshmallow in the cup and served it up.

Today, we actually had marshmallows as part of our snack. (It was the plagues of Egypt snack and the mini marshmallows were the hail, Gushers were the boils that exploded in disgustingness when you bit into them, mini chocolate chips were gnats, pretzels were crunchy locusts, and raisins were hmmm frogs? I don't remember what the raisins were supposed to represent, but it doesn't matter since only 1 kid out of the 50 or so actually ate the raisins.

Anyway, we had actual marshmallows today so Mrs. Abbott got Brooklyn a little cup of marshmallows. Back in the nursery, she asked Brooklyn to "make her a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows" again. Brooklyn handed her a cup full of imaginary hot chocolate. Mrs. Abbott asked her, "Where are the marshmallows?"

Brooklyn answered, "You have to pretend." Then she went back to the play kitchen and proceeded to eat all the real marshmallows herself.

Brooklyn (in her jewels, of course) cooking her pretend food

The Queen of the Kitchen, Mrs. Marcks, asked Austin to draw some bugs and swamp-like creatures on the tablecloths. Little did she know, Austin would spend 2 whole days covering the tablecloths with such details.

Crocodile Dock

And here's a picture from last night. We went to a Schaumburg Flyers baseball vs. Chicago Bandits girl's softball game. The girls won, but unlike our Cubs, they only took 7 innings to do so.

Oh yeah, that was money well-spent on Brooklyn's ticket. She had fun playing with Savannah's friend's phone all night.

My son is going to VBS here, and it's Crocodile Dock too. They start at the ungodly hour of 8:30am. Thankfully it's only a 5 min or less walk from our house. As much as I'd love school to start to have my peaceful daily routine back, I have enjoyed not setting an alarm so far this summer.

Dawn you need to talk to your Children's diretor about doing afternoons :) Our VBS has been in the afternoon the last couple years and it works out pretty well.And what year does your VBS start at? We have it for 3 yr olds to 5th grade. We did Croc Dock this year too and had a blast. I <3 took care of Bryan all week in te nursery, she was so good to him!

Hope the rest of the week goes well!!I couldn't remember what any of the things represented in that snack and had to ask my kids that night while explaining it to someone.

Same as julie above...I read your snack and thought, must be crocodile dock...my 3 1/2 year old went a month ago at a local church and asks every week if she gets to go to "vocation bible school again." Loved it...bought her the cd, too.

AND be glad my wee ones weren't there for that snack. a) All the debating between the two as to whether or not marshmallows had dairy b) the loud pronouncements that Little Miss can't eat dairy and therefore can't eat the chips but that Mommy has dairy free chips for her at home c) neither wee one would eat the gushers, and everyone would be subjected to the dentist lecture about what they do to your teeth and d) ALL the raisins would be eaten by my wee ones, which would of course produce fun results three hours later.

GREAT drawings by Austin. I'm glad he found something to love doing there.

And Brooklyn? There's a girl after my own heart. So reminds me of Little Miss, but she's getting so big. She doesn't look 3 at all anymore!

We did Crocodile Dock in June. Good luck getting those songs out of your head. My kid loves singing them and it is still in my CD player in the car. Actually, it is a really good CD.

I was the rotationary room decorator. For the plagues? I did something I called "Pick A Plague!" I glued (until 2 AM) pictures of all of the critters, boils (red dots), darkness (black squares), hail (plastic golf balls) . . . to clothes pins and the kids got to stick them onto Pastor (who played Pharoah.) It was hilarious!

So that week I 1. made a burning bush, 2. recreated the plagues, 3. snagged an metal seder plate from work, filled it with salt water and parsley that discolored it enough to have to have it refinished 4. built a tomb and 5. parted the Red Sea.

Love reading about Brooklyn. Jazz is 3.5 and they sound so much alike!

Question: When your first child was 3 yrs old, did you get to sleep in at all? I have been trying to sleep in even though Jazz wakes up super early. Then I got "yelled at" by some other moms. Just wondering what you did before you had the older ones to look after the younger ones in the morning.

Crocodile Dock! We are doing that this week, too . . . but at night. Much easier to get up for, ha ha ha! It's my favorite week of the summer. I'm in charge of our Sing and Play Swamp Stomp and Firefly Finale with another volunteer. Our Thursday was amazing - the kids actually were quiet and amazed during the finale when we had the cross covered with purple lights, their leaders covered it with the trash bags, and our "Jesus" removed the bags during Amazing Love. They actually started clapping. In what can be a crazy week, I love the moments like this!